It's Got to Be the Morning After

Mavs 118 Golden State 112- In reporting the game, the Chron's Janny Hu brings up the "c" word, choke. Did the Warriors choke by not scoring with 3:21 minutes left in the game? They were up by nine then and looking really good. Then they started missing their shots and Dirk Nowitzki appeared out of nowhere to actually play like the MVP he is supposed to be and the Mavs took the game. So, did the Warriors choke or did the Mavs win it? Hard to say. We do know that if the Warriors wind up losing the series, this game is going to leave a bitter, nasty, foul taste in the mouth.

Rockies 9 Giants 7-- And speaking of foul tastes, there was Russ Ortiz. Ortiz was looking like maybe the bargain bin score of the year for the Giants as the once-reliable pitcher became reliable again. Not last night. In 3 1/3 inning of work, Oritz was tagged for eight runs. The Giants did rally to make it close (we'll say this for the Giants, they always seem to make a game out of it) but this game was over early. Oh, and that drumbeat you're hearing from the Phonebooth? That's the calls for Tim "the Enchanter" Linceum.

A's 5 Red Sox 4- Our only happy story involving Bay Area sports for the day is from the A's in Boston who played their usual hair whitening close game and beat the Sox of Red in 10 innings. The hero for the day was Travis Buck, a name that sounds right out of some country music "American Idol" ripoff, who hit a two-run homer off of the heretofore untouchable Jonathan Paplebon, the first runs Papelbon has given up all season. We think the fact that the A's were the first one's to score off Papelbon is actually fairly typical of theA'a-- somehow they always manage to pull stuff like that. The A's won the game in the 10th when Mike Piazza doubled and then scored on a Dan Johnson double. Huston Street got a well-deserved win for navigating a 10th inning featuring both Big Papi and Manny.